


I like it when you smile

by swallowthewhale



Category: Lemonade Mouth (2011)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 14:49:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8212900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: Maybe all they needed was a little nudge, and an excuse to spend more time together.





	

Wen’s guest room is neat and plain in desert colors, like the rest of his house. Olivia sets her bag at the foot of the bed, leans her guitar against the dresser and tugs at the sleeves of her sweater nervously. She’s grateful for Wen inviting her to stay, and she’s excited to spend some time with just him. It’s been a while since they’d had a quiet moment without one of their friends interrupting. 

“Hey.” Wen leans against the doorframe, hands in his pockets. “You okay?”

Olivia nods without turning around. She knows that if Wen sees her face he’ll know she’s definitely not okay.

Apparently he doesn’t need to see her face, though, because suddenly he’s right behind her, a warm hand gentle on her her shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”

Olivia swipes at her cheeks. “I know. But she’s all I’ve got.”

Wen slides his hand down her arm and takes her hand. “You’ve got me too.”

Olivia inhales deeply and smiles, finally facing him. “Thank you.”

Wen just squeezes her hand. “Want to see the horses?”

Maybe Wen expected Olivia to be nervous around the horses (maybe he hoped that she would be, a little, just so he could have an excuse to stand closer), but she walks right up to them, rubs their noses affectionately and feeds them sugar cubes. Wen resigns himself to watching after offering to go for a ride in the morning. He’s caught up in the way the sun turns her hair gold when he realizes he’s been staring and she’s watching him with a shy smile and red cheeks.

“Ready for dinner?” Wen asks quickly, hoping she won’t ask. He’s not sure what exactly he would say if she did.

Georgie insists on sitting next to Olivia at dinner and Wen doesn’t miss the looks that Sydney keeps shooting him. He bumps feet with Olivia to get her to laugh and tries to avoid Sydney’s questions by bringing the dishes to the kitchen, but she’s right behind him. 

“How long?” she asks quietly, rinsing dishes off before putting them into the dishwasher.

“Just a couple nights. Her grandmother is being released from the hospital on Sunday.”

Sydney nudges him and raises an eyebrow. “You know what I mean.”

Wen shrugs. He's not sure when exactly it happened, but he knows when he realized and he's not about to talk about it with Olivia in the next room. “A while,” he finally says, hoping that will satisfy Sydney’s curiosity.

Sydney's quiet for a long moment and Wen thinks she's dropped it. But then, “she looks at you the same way you look at her, you know.”

He doesn't know and as he continues to put leftovers into Tupperware, he tries to figure out what exactly Sydney means by that. 

Wen lets Georgie pick the movie, even though it's supposed to be his turn to choose, and doesn't complain when she puts in “The Little Mermaid” for the fifth time in a row. He just makes popcorn and sits next to Olivia on the loveseat.

Wen has spent enough time with Olivia to know that she sings under her breath along to the radio, the TV, and anything else that she knows the words to. Wen also knows that Georgie likes to belt along to “Part of Your World” and he doesn’t have to wait long for Olivia’s stronger voice to support Georgie’s small one through the song. And that gives him an idea. Wen  _ has  _ been practicing his Jamaican accent, and just maybe he can get a real smile out of Olivia.

\---

Wen’s not paying much attention to whatever he’d put on the TV in his room. He’s not tired, even though it’s late and they’re getting up early to go riding. He closes his eyes, and he’s back on the loveseat, Olivia’s cheek on his shoulder and her hair tickling his neck. He’d kept his arm along the top of the couch to give her more room and resisting the urge to wrap it around her shoulders had required enough concentration that’d he’d completely missed the first half of “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” Wen had thought that Olivia had fallen asleep by the end of the movie, she was so still and quiet. But when he shifts to look, she tilts her face up towards him and their noses brush. Olivia wrinkles hers, but doesn’t pull away and Wen will be damned if the first time he kisses her it’s in front of his dad, stepmom, and little sister, so he just bumps her nose again with his and turns back to the TV.

He opens his eyes with a sigh. He doesn’t notice her at first, the doorway is dark and the TV doesn’t light up that part if his room. He startles when she moves, and she shies away.

“No, no,” Wen waves her toward him. “You okay?”

Olivia shrugs as she comes closer, wringing the hem of her oversized t-shirt in her hands. It’s slipping off one shoulder and Wen only lets his eyes linger for a second. Maybe two.

“Can’t sleep?”

Olivia perches on the edge of his bed. “It’s too quiet. Can I stay with you for a while?”

Wen lifts the blankets and she slides in until her thigh is pressed against his. She’s not sure when she got this forthright. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep, because she knows she’ll never be able to think about it without blushing in the morning. She’s pretty proud that she manages to pay enough attention to the Full House re-run that she could sum up the plot easily enough if asked, since every time she’s this close to Wen she tends to quickly lose track of everything going on around her. Her leg is tingling where it’s touching his, and when she starts to slide off the edge of the bed, he wraps his arm around her shoulders and her traitor heart picks up speed.

“Thank you,” Olivia whispers suddenly.

“For what?”

“Letting me stay with you.”

Wen shifts so he can look at her. His eyes are dark and serious and really, really close and Olivia is pretty sure she stops breathing. “I’m glad you’re here.”

It takes Wen too long to decide and by the time he does, Olivia is blushing and turning back to the TV. At some point, they turn the TV off and slide further down into the bed. When Olivia wakes up, Wen is firm behind her, a hand on the bare skin at her waist where her shirt has rucked up, a leg between hers, and his breath warm on her cheek.

\---

Neither Wen nor Olivia bring it up as they get ready in the morning. There’s a fine layer of mist over the grass and the air is crisp and clean. Olivia almost feels like the whole thing was a dream, but the memory is so real and the way Wen has been looking at her all morning forces her to admit that it actually happened. And she knows that she can’t keep pretending because it’s not like she can avoid him for the rest of her life. They go to school together. They’re in a  _ band  _ together.

Wen doesn’t push. He doesn’t even know what he wants to say, and he’s too nervous about what Olivia will say. He packs fruit, the little scones that Sydney likes, and hot chocolate into a saddle bag and dosn’t disrupt the stillness of the morning.

Wen leads Olivia through a field into a thin woods to a clearing next to a stream. Wen is lying on his back, his arms crossed behind his head as he gazes up through the trees. He can see Olivia out of the corner of his eye, picking apart a scone.

“What did that scone ever do to you?” he teases.

Olivia startles and drops it into her lap. When she brushes the crumbs off, her hands are shaking.

Wen frowns and sits up. “Olivia?”

“I wrote to my dad,” she says abruptly.

Wen stays quiet.

“I just got a letter back. I haven’t opened it yet.”

“I’m sure he was happy to hear from you,” Wen says carefully. He’s never quite sure how to talk about Olivia’s dad.

She swings her legs around to face him, but her eyes stay fixed on the ground. “Wen?”

She’s chewing on her lip. Wen wants to kiss her. Shit, inappropriate. He says, “We should talk about last night” at the same time Olivia says, “Will you read it first?”

Olivia turns red, and Wen is sure his ears are the same color. He clears his throat. “I’d be happy to,” he says quietly.

She turns pleading eyes on him. “Do we have to?”

“I need to know if you’re okay with this,” he waves vaguely between them. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, and if you,” he rubs his nose nervously, “if you don’t feel the same then you should tell me now.”

Olivia buries her face in her hands and mumbles something.

Wen gently peels her hands away. “What?”

“I like you, too,” she says a little too loudly, face crimson.

Wen laughs and just pulls her into a hug, letting her hide her face in his shirt.

Olivia is pretty sure she’s still blushing when they return to the house. She escapes upstairs and into the shower before Georgie sees her. Wen leans against the bedroom door while she’s combing her hair. 

“Dad and Sydney are taking Georgie to the fair tonight and Georgie is begging for us to go, too. Do you want to go?”

Olivia meets his eyes in the mirror, working her fingers through a knot. “I haven’t been to the fair in a long time.”

Wen grins. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

\---

Olivia isn’t ready to admit it yet, but she  _ is  _ having fun. She’s been on all the rides for kids with Georgie, won a tiny stuffed cat at one of the booths, and shared a cotton candy with Wen that turned both of their mouths blue. Then they get to the Ferris Wheel. If there’s anything that rivals Olivia’s stage fright, it’s her fear of heights. She knows Wen knows. She’s pretty sure that he’s going to convince her anyway, he always manages to get her to do things she would never do on her own. Like join a band and perform onstage for the first time since the first grade.

They’re in line before Olivia has much time to protest, and she clutches the plush kitten so hard that Wen gently extracts it before “you’ll rip it in half.” Then Wen’s fingers are sliding between her’s and he’s singing quietly in her ear.

“Sometimes in our lives

We all have pain

We all have sorrow

But if we are wise

We know that there’s always tomorrow”

Olivia giggles and squeezes his hand.

“Lean on me

When you’re not strong

I’ll be your friend

I’ll help you carry on

For it won’t be long

Til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on”

They’re in the car before Olivia knows it, and Wen turns to help Georgie in only to find the door closed and Sydney waving with a sly smile. Wen sighs and settles next to Olivia, leaning out over the edge of the car to look at the outline of city against the desert behind it, orange and red in the setting sun.

“Wen?”

He turns and grins when he finds Olivia with her eyes shut and her hands gripping the edge of the seat. “Are you going to keep your eyes shut the whole time?”

“Yes,” she says firmly. Then, “is it pretty?”

“It’s beautiful,” Wen says quietly.

“Last time I went to a fair was with my dad,” Olivia admits. “I wanted to do everything, and he went on every ride even though he hates them. The only thing he wanted to do was take me on the Ferris Wheel. I was terrified.”

“More than now?”

“No,” she lies.

Wen scoots a little closer and tucks a stray hair behind her ear, letting his fingers brush her cheek. When she doesn’t move, he cradles her face in his hand and brushes his nose against hers.

“Eskimo kisses,” Olivia whispers and he kisses her properly, inhaling her gasp and feeling his chest squeeze when she melts against him.

When he pulls back a little, her eyes are wide. “Still scared?” he asks.

She just kisses him again. He’s not sure if that’s a yes or no, but he really doesn’t care.


End file.
